James Burpee
I have painted from nature intermittently throughout my forty eight year career. In 2000 I made a steady commitment to paint from nature. The paintings are from creeks on the North Shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota that have an incredible richness of form and color. Willow roots on the creek bank turn bright crimson when wet at certain times of the year. The play of light, the flow of water, and the sculptural boulders and rocks are the main subjects. The viewpoint is intimate rather than picturesque of scenic.
I see in my work a kind of Yin-Yang balance between qualities: There is a balance between accurate observation--realism--and two-dimensional form and color--abstraction. There is a balance in nature and in my work between strength and delicacy. These balances sometimes tip in one direction or the other. Strength is usually found in the composition of a painting, and which contains a lot of delicate and seemingly chaotic details.
My use of color is based on the idea that a painting not only describes light but radiates light. For me this is close to the experience of actual seeing and is also a metaphor for the inner spirit of aliveness.
I want people to see beyond the stereotypes of nature they have been pre-conditioned to see, and to perceive the subtle and intricate interrelationships that shape the natural world. And I want them to see that there is a form language to painting--I conceive of both nature and my painting language as an integration of differences. The visual language of painting--"abstraction"--is not only a mental construct, but more importantly is the vehicle for non-verbal feelings that are the poetics of my work.
My process is to convert my own photographs into paintings. I attempt to translate what I saw in an optically accurate way as possible. But I know that emotional memory is one of the filters which alter strict accuracy. Other filters which affect the outcome are the sense of the whole experience and not just the sense of sight; the process of forming the photographic source on the computer, and most of all my sense of what makes an articulate and poetic painting. Therefore the process is not a mechanical reproduction of a photograph.
Education
B.A. Art, San Jose State College, San Jose, CA 1958
M.F.A. Painting; Printmaking Minor, CA College of Arts & Crafts, Oakland, CA1960
Teaching Experience
1997-present -Uof M, Minneapolis, Painting & Drawing
1997-present -Administrative Assistant , The Kenwood Retirement Community, Mpls.
1987-1996 Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Professor of Painting & Drawing.
www.jamesburpee.com Shallow Creek Bed, Gold Light
oil on canvas 30 x 38
$3,400
Arrow in the Rock #1
oil on canvas 16 x 20
$900
| Golden Pool #2
oil on canvas 34 x 44
$2,200
Tischer Falls - Downstream
oil on canvas 20 x 16
$900
Fall Creek Boulders #2
oil on canvas 32 x 40
$3,400
Dappled Light, Trickling Water
oil on canvas 38 x 30
$3,400
Tischer Falls
oil on canvas 16 x 20
$900
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